A small turboprop aircraft, engaged in a hurricane relief mission bound for Jamaica, tragically crashed Monday morning into a pond located within a gated community in Coral Springs, a suburb of Fort Lauderdale. The crash, occurring shortly after takeoff, resulted in the deaths of two individuals and narrowly avoided nearby homes, according to authorities and a local witness.

The Coral Springs Police Department later confirmed the fatalities in a statement released Monday afternoon. However, they withheld specific details regarding the identities or number of people aboard the plane and did not immediately respond to inquiries for additional information.

Deputy Chief Mike Moser of the Coral Springs-Parkland Fire Department reported that emergency responders arrived on the scene within minutes of receiving the crash notification. Initially, they found no victims, prompting a shift from rescue to recovery operations. While nearby homes escaped damage, crews did identify debris scattered around the retention pond. Aerial footage from local news revealed a broken fence in the yard of a home adjacent to the crash site.

“The plane itself wasn’t visible,” stated Moser. “Following the debris trail led us to the water. We deployed divers to search for victims, but none were discovered.”

Kenneth DeTrolio recounted to the South Florida Sun Sentinel the moment he and his wife witnessed the aircraft crash through their backyard, destroying their fence and toppling palm trees before plunging into the water. The impact left debris strewn across their property, and their pool and back porch were contaminated with spilled fuel.

The fuel smell was so strong inside his home that it took a few hours to dissipate, he added.

“We heard the strangest sound. I never heard anything like it before, and apparently that was when this plane must have flown between my home and my neighbor’s house,” DeTrolio told the newspaper.

Officials cautioned residents that police would maintain a significant presence in the area throughout Monday and Tuesday as investigators continue collecting evidence.

Broward County, where the plane took off from and where the crash occurred, is home to a vibrant Caribbean American community that sprang into action to collect relief supplies following Hurricane Melissa. A powerful Category 5 hurricane, Melissa slammed into Jamaica late last month, leaving a path of destruction.

Moser said police would take over recovery efforts, and federal aviation officials would investigate the cause of the crash.

The small Beechcraft King Air plane took off from the Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport at approximately 10:14 a.m., according to a spokesperson for the City of Fort Lauderdale, which owns and operates the airport. The crash occurred soon after takeoff, with Coral Springs police officers and firemen responding at 10:19 a.m., just five minutes later.

According to Federal Aviation Administration records, the plane was manufactured in 1976. King Air models can seat between seven and 12 people, according to the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association.

Federal records showed the registered owner of the plane is listed as International Air Services, a company that markets itself as specializing in providing trust agreements to non-U.S. citizens that enable them to register their aircraft with the FAA. A person who answered the company’s phone Monday afternoon declined to answer questions from a reporter, stating “no comment” and ending the phone call.

The flight tracking website FlightAware shows the plane made four other trips to or from Jamaica in the past week, traveling between George Town in the Cayman Islands and Montego Bay and Negril in Jamaica, before landing in Fort Lauderdale on Friday. It was not immediately clear who was organizing the trips.

Hurricane Melissa made landfall in Jamaica on Oct. 28, tied for the strongest landfalling Atlantic hurricane in history. The storm also caused devastation in Cuba, Haiti and the Dominican Republic and prompted relief organizations to mobilize.

Local government officials in Jamaica said in the days after the storm that Melissa had ripped the roofs off 120,000 structures, affecting some 90,000 families in the island’s especially hard-hit western region. A week after Melissa’s landfall in Jamaica, more than 2,000 people were still reported to be in shelters.